


Three-card Monte

by misura



Category: Ocean's (Movies)
Genre: Community: slashfest, M/M, Pre-Slash, Seduction, Strip Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-24
Updated: 2008-10-24
Packaged: 2017-10-25 16:58:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>In short, Rusty was screwed.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Three-card Monte

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _Rusty/Linus(/Danny): Rusty is used to getting what he wants, but how to seduce a Caldwell who only has eyes for his best friend?_

Rusty'd figured out pretty early in the game that the deck was stacked against him; Danny was the better thief by skill (and practice), the better conman (by reputation, which should be holding him back but somehow never did; even people who should know better still fooled themselves into thinking they could trust Danny _this time_ and Rusty knew he was one of them) and Linus, born to a life of crime and taking to it like a fish to water, took to Danny like that proverbial fish would take to a nice-loking piece of bait, swallowing hook, line and sinker.

In short, Rusty was screwed.

However, he did have one ace up his sleeve - and all things considered, it was a card he'd have been forced to play sooner or later anyway, so Rusty figured he might as well open the game with it. With a bit of luck (or rather: with a good con to back him up), it might just be enough.

If you couldn't beat the game, Rusty knew, you could either turn and walk away (although in a lot of cases, you _couldn't_ and the house would take you) or you could con the game into thinking _you_ were the house, making the stacked deck work for you, instead of against you.

 

Danny collected the cards and offered Linus a look of friendly concern.

"I'm sorry I didn't think to ask this before, but do you know how to play poker?"

Rusty scooped up a handful of peanuts and sat back to enjoy the view of Linus wearing nothing more than a pair of boxers and a sock some more. (Danny had decided to be merciful and allow one sock to pass as one article of clothing, after a considerable amount of squirming on Linus's part.)

"Yes." Linus, predictably, bristled at the suggestion his skills were inferior to Danny's in any way. He never did that with Rusty, or at least not in quite the same way. When Rusty suggested he was better at something than Linus, Linus just scoffed and set out to prove him wrong - when Danny did it, Linus lost what little composure he had and then set out to prove Danny right. (Of course, the end-result of Linus's attempts to prove something was usually the same; it was only the initial attitude that was different.) "Of course I know how to play poker."

"Doesn't look like you do." At the very least, Rusty added silently, it didn't look like Linus knew when he was being played - and the fact that Danny was still fully clothed while Rusty had only lost the tie he'd specifically put on for that purpose should have been a rather large, unmissable clue.

Linus didn't even turn his head, his attention wholly fixed on Danny, who was shuffling. Rusty might have forgiven him for that if Linus'd been looking at the cards and Danny's hands, but instead, it was Danny's face Linus was looking at.

Danny pretended obliviousness for a while, then caught Linus's gaze and raised one eyebrow.

"I know how to play poker," Linus repeated.

Rusty didn't bother repeating his comment, instead settling for eating the last of the peanuts.

"All right." Danny dealt.

"We're out of peanuts," said Rusty.

"I don't like peanuts," Linus said, as Danny rose - Danny raised his other eyebrow, but made no further comment as he headed for the door, presumably to take as long as was humanly possible to find some peanuts. The moment Danny was gone, of course, Linus suddenly seemed to notice Rusty looking at him. "What?"

"You don't like peanuts." Clearly, Rusty was going to have to work on changing Linus's eating habits, along with oh, his manners and fashion-sense, for starters. "Did anybody _ask_ you if you liked peanuts?"

"Well." Linus wasn't dumb, exactly; Rusty wouldn't have been attracted to him if he'd been. Rather, Linus's smarts seemed to be limited to things that helped make him a good thief. "No."

Rusty sighed. Linus looked sullen.

"Let me see your cards."

Rusty reached for them even before he'd finished speaking - Linus reacted, mostly on instinct, by snatching them away. In a romantic movie, their hands would have touched and their gazes would have met as the background-music swelled; in reality, Linus ended up clutching his cards to his chest and glowering at Rusty, whose fingers itched for some sort of food to pick up.

Instead, he settled for taking a look at Danny's cards. Linus said nothing as Rusty sat down again.

"So," Rusty said, "you don't want to win and you don't like losing and you don't want my help."

"Danny says you taught people how to play poker for a living once."

Rusty wondered when that particular conversation had taken place, and why Danny hadn't seen fit to mention it to him. "Not people: actors," he corrected. "It paid the bills."

Linus looked like he was about to say he didn't consider that a very good reason, then thought better of it. "So you think you're good at this."

"No, _they_ thought I was good at it." Rusty considered looking at his own cards, but decided against it. "Do you think you're pretty?"

"What?" Being nearly naked had never improved anyone's ability to glare impressively, and Linus's glares had always been more cute in a bratty kind of way at the best of times.

"Do you think you're impressing us by losing at poker and taking off your clothes?" To say 'me' would be incorrect; to say 'Danny' at cross-purposes with what Rusty hoped to be getting at.

"Uh."

Rusty didn't raise any eyebrows. He just watched Linus turn red out of the corner of his eyes, pretending not to and fooling neither of them.

"What's he got?" Linus asked at last.

Rusty leaned back. "What's who got?"

"Danny. You looked at his cards."

Rusty gave Linus a look. Danny'd told him he could really hurt people with that look, but his eyes had been twinkling when he'd said it, so Rusty wasn't entirely sure. Linus didn't seem particularly hurt by it, or maybe he was simply immune.

"If you want to know what he's got, take a look yourself."

To get someone else to do something you weren't able to do yourself (or not as well, at any rate) was one thing - most of Danny's plans over the years had been based on the principle that someone somewhere was really good at something Danny wasn't particularly good at. It was something else to get someone else to do the job you weren't _willing_ to do - Danny'd never stoop that low, so Rusty wouldn't either, and neither would Linus, if he knew what was good for him.

"You - " Linus glanced at the door (and yes, now that Rusty thought about it, if that vase in the corner didn't contain a hidden camera, it was rather likely Danny was listening in on them - not that he expected Linus to have thought of that). "What's your problem?" he whispered.

Linus, obviously, had no idea what was good for him.

"Right now, you are." Rusty didn't lower his voice. If Danny was listening, Rusty figured he owed him at least that much. It was a _pain_ to try to listen in on a conversation where people were whispering, especially if you were doing so with a friend who was unable to hear the difference between 'three' and 'eight'.

"You think I'm a threat?" Linus asked.

"I think you're a nuisance," Rusty corrected him.

"Danny likes me."

"No." Rusty shook his head. "Danny gets along with you, same way he gets along with everyone. Any liking that's going on is purely one-sided, from you." Well, either that or Danny had no problem cheating, lying to and otherwise conning people he genuinely liked.

"You don't." Linus made it sound like an accusation.

"Get along with you? No."

"Like me." Linus made _that_ sound like a crime - or maybe a virtue or something, considering Linus almost certainly wouldn't disapprove of Rusty's doing something not strictly in accordance with the letter and spirit of the law.

"Oh, I like you." Rusty smiled. Tess had told him he had a smile to break hearts, but she'd been a little drunk at the time, and newly-wed. Danny had told him on the morning after that his smile looked 'just right', whatever that might mean.

Linus frowned. "I don't understand."

"Okay," Rusty said. "That's the first step to fixing things: admitting that there's a problem. That's good."

Linus's frown deepened. Probably, he (incorrectly) sensed that Rusty'd just insulted him in some way, but wasn't quite able to figure out how, or what to throw at Rusty for a comeback.

"What's the second step?"

Rusty lost his smile and shrugged. "You get dressed and we go have a cup of coffee somewhere."

"What about Danny?" Linus looked ... confused, Rusty decided. Not ideal, but better than 'hostile', 'sullen' or 'halfway intelligent'. Rusty didn't particularly want Linus to think too much right now; there was too much of a chance of his reaching the wrong conclusion or, worse yet, the right one.

"We'll leave him a note," he said. "You got a pen?"

"Yeah, but I want it back." Linus handed it over quickly enough though, and Rusty slipped it into his own pocket once he was done with it - almost, but not entirely, without even thinking about it. "Hey!"

"Ready? Let's go."

For a moment, Rusty thought Linus was going to argue. Then he straightened and grabbed his clothes, and Rusty reflected that yes, it had looked nicer when Linus'd been taking them off, yet there was something nice about watching him get dressed as well - that hint of smugness on his face, perhaps, that told Rusty Linus thought he was getting away with something here, while in actuality, of course, Linus had just jumped out of the frying pan.

Just in case, Rusty turned to the vase and grinned.


End file.
